Viral mediated disease conditions represent some of the most debilitating diseases affecting humans and animals and are responsible for significant mortality and morbidity. This is particularly the case for cancers associated with viral transformation of host cells. One particularly serious form of cancer is cervical cancer. Persistent infection of the transformation zone of the cervix uteri with MPVs such as human papillomavirus (HPV) is seen as a primary cause of cervical cancer. Approximately half a million women die of cervical cancer every year, while a much higher number of patients are exposed to preinvasive disease or genital warts, and one has to conclude that treatment of these virally caused neoplasias is still inadequate in spite of the long-term establishment of surgical techniques.
MPV genomes encode proteins with molecular properties required for cellular transformation in cell culture and in situ. Human papillomavirus-16 (HPV-16) is the most common HPV type in malignant neoplasia and is found in about 60% of all cervical carcinomas, while about twenty other HPV types account for another 30% of these malignancies. Other HPV types that infect genital mucosa or skin, like HPV-6 and HPV-11, are most often associated with benign neoplasia, such as genital warts.
Current treatment for HPV-16 associated lesions is surgery, while limited success is achieved for HPV-6 and HPV-11 lesions with immune modulators like interferon. Prevention of infection by HPV by vaccination and challenge of established HPV infections by immune therapy are under intense investigation, but are presently not established clinical procedures.
A need exists, therefore, for further therapeutic agents useful in the treatment or prophylaxis of disease conditions caused or exacerbated by MPVs and for methods of identifying same.